Dustin's Fantasy campaign

Character Creation

Let’s all create 300 point PCs with TL 3 background, maximum of -50 in disadvantages, reduced attributes and quirks. A good place to start might be one of the 250 point templates from Dungeon Fantasy, plus another 50 points for racial packages, languages, cultural familiarity, social/knowledge/background skills, etc., in order to make a more well-rounded PC than just a simple dungeon delver.

Most cinematic advantages will be in play – Heroic Archer, Weapon Master, Trained by a Master, etc. Check with me before trying something totally crazy of course – if it feels like it could be game-breaking, just assume it is. No Altered Time Rate, as one example (use the Great Haste spell for that). I certainly don’t mind a little munchkining – oh, excuse me, “character optimization” – but don’t try to make a PC that is going to screw with every plot or “I win button” every encounter your poor GM tries to plan.

All equipment from the Basic set, Low Tech, Fantasy, Magic and Dungeon Fantasy is in play. Let’s try to limit all starting tech to TL 3 despite what DF says about up to TL 4 – no flintlock or matchlock firearms. Now if that edged rapier or that buff leather coat is TL 4, that’s probably fine, I’m more concerned with “feel” and staying on brand than what exactly the books say – err toward swords and sorcery, away from guns and bombs.

For mages and clerics, let’s limit starting PCs to Magery 4 or Power Investiture 4. The most powerful spellcasters in the world might get up to Magery/PI 8+, but you guys obviously aren’t there yet. I’m not an expert with the magic system yet, so just help me out here and make reasonable choices on the spells – as a guideline, don’t take anything that you wouldn’t want to see if you were GMing.

The Adventuring Company

My initial idea was to have all the PCs be part of an adventuring company or guild based out of the city of Fallkeep in the Western Reach. It would be likely that the characters would all have Cultural Familiarity – Western Reach [ 0 native, or 1 if hailing from elsewhere ] and Language – Common [ 0 native, 4 accented or 6 fluent ]. Feel free to come up with a name for the organization!

This company/guild is a net 0-point advantage, and does not count toward your disadvantage limit:

PCs may buy up to 2 additional levels of Rank in the guild for [ 5 ] per level (so up to Rank 3 total). The company has access to useful resources and its own hierarchy; however, it is just one of several similar organizations and has no special social influence, so Rank does not add to one’s overall Status (though Status could of course be bought separately). If one of the PCs holds a higher Rank than the others, he would be the de facto “leader” of any expedition or mission.

This doesn’t have to be your only job or only patron; you’re essentially just members in good standing, and you will be called on to handle contracts regularly, but in your free time you may pursue your own interests as long as they don’t conflict with those of the company. It’s understood that you owe the organization 10% of any contract payment, loot taken during company-sponsored delves, basically anything earned, found or plundered while on a job for the company. In return, the company obtains contracts for its members, provides some limited equipment and arranges for support personnel as needed (typically 50 to 125 point individuals such as laborers, torchbearers, spearmen, shieldbearers, etc., all of whom will expect a cut of any payment or loot). Regularly refusing contracts will cause one to lose Rank and could even result in expulsion from the guild.